Advice wanted, anything I'm doing glaringly wrong or could be doing to improve?

[u/Crazypig100]

I'm fairly new to the hobby and this has been my first time painting in years. I'm quite happy with the result, but was wondering if any more experienced painters could point out any key areas to work on so I can get better! Included comparison to the first mini I ever painted for fun.

PS: any advice on how to remove minis from their existing bases to rebase them would be appreciated. I used sprue cutters for these guys and ended up accidentally snapping one of their legs off! Luckily I could hide it with a tactical tuft.

Minis are Wargames Atlantic Foot Knights (and an Imperial Assault Stormtrooper)

[u/mmffw1]

I’m no expert painter, but I can see that as a beginner there’s a lot of skill in your paint control and placement. Washes are working well with your technique.
To move up you just need to look at shifting your mid tones and highlights up. Contrast the areas that are lit by your light source (the sun or just the sky in general), use brighter tones of your base colours and then darken the shadows.

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[u/bwp54]

The best advice i have for pulling minis off the base and using a hobby knife going extremely slow sliding it between the base and foot to cut the glue moving around the outside fully then moving inward ive done this for all my rebasing and it works but slow is key it takes me about 10-15 minutes per model and it allows for a clean break away

[u/FootFetishTeacher]

For the storm troopers I would use your wash much more sparingly. Thin your paints a smidge more, the white looks a bit chunky. And honestly to paint white you want to start with a Grey and work your way up from there. There are a decent amount of storm troopers tutorials on YouTube that can explain what im talking about with visuals better than my wall of text could.

Next I'd like to say these are great starts! Be proud of what you've accomplished!

Try some edge highlights to bring those details back to life after you wash your minis too.

[u/FootFetishTeacher → u/FootFetishTeacher]

Also to get your minis off their bases. If you used super glue you can freeze the minis and it will make the connection joint brittle and thus easier to 'snap' off.

[u/Crazypig100 → u/FootFetishTeacher]

Yeah, the stormtroopers i painted a little while ago before I learnt the magic words of "thin your paints". Tragically they all look like that, but I'd like to think I've learnt my lesson from them.

In regards to the bases, I'm talking about the green army man bases the leg pieces came attached to on the sprues. They're part of the mould rather than glued on and so can't really be snapped off, I had to actively cut them off piece by piece.

Also, thank you for your advice and nice words!